Surfing improvement

Posted on September 30, 2007
Filed Under - leisure |

Had a great surf yesterday down at my local beach, Whipsiderry. The wave was small and clean, the water was warm and there were only about 15 other surfers out in the line-up, so loads of room for everyone! It was very beautiful out there in the water. As a surfer, you see aspects of the ocean that other people don’t see, like the back of a wave as it’s breaking. It’s like the back of a great animal and a very fine spray comes off the top of the wave as it breaks. Surfers probably have a name for this but I don’t know what it is.

This is Whipsiderry, the quietest beach in Newquay! It’s a beautiful beach and has a nice little break but most people just don’t know it’s there.

Whipsiderry, Newquay, surfing beach

I haven’t had the opportunity to go surfing for a few weeks, so I was worried that I would have lost some of my ability. In fact, I had my best session yet! I am getting better at catching waves. This is due to improvement in my wave selection, timing and paddling skills.

It’s the paddling that’s the hardest at the moment. Non-surfers assume that standing up is the hardest thing about surfing but it really isn’t! I need a longer run-up than the guys in order to generate enough speed to catch the waves and I therefore commit to the wave while it’s still a long way out. A friend told me to take long, powerful strokes when paddling into a wave, rather than quick strokes. This is a classic beginner mistake, where the arms are going like windmills but you are still not moving fast enough. I found yesterday that the long strokes really helped.

What I really need to work on is the pop-up once I’m on the wave. I am taking a bit too long to stand up and it’s a clumsy process so I don’t quite get the turn in quick enough. I think the mistake I make is that I’m never sure whether I’m actually going to catch the wave so I’m not mentally planning ahead. Perhaps what I should do is assume that I am going to catch the wave, so that my brain can move ahead and prepare for a snappy pop-up, and perhaps even start turning the board (yikes!).

And just in case I’m taking it all a bit too seriously, I can visit the hilarious www.crapsurfer.com and revel in tales of surfing idiocy and the humiliation that is all too familiar for someone trying to get to grips with this amazing activity.

Anyway, as people keep saying to me, it’s all about water time now. I know what I should be doing, it’s a question of practising and doing it. Conditions are set to be good for the week ahead and as luck would have it, I have taken the week off work. What great timing! I look forward to getting some decent water time in.

Stumble it!

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